Garbage cans and trash containers are everywhere. One or two days a week they line the streets where we live and create an obstacle course for cars, pedestrians and bikes. Since most garbage cans are not designed to stand out (be easily seen) they are especially difficult to see at night. Hence, they are an easy target for collisions with vehicles and bicycles. A collision with a vehicle creates a huge mess, however, a collision with a bike can cause injuries. So since they are in traffic, marking them is important. Reflective tape applied to a garbage can or trash container fixes this problem by making the container extremely visible when light from a car or bike is pointed in its direction. The picture above consists of one red circle at the bottom that is about 2 inches in diameter and two white (silver) strips that are 2 inchs by 6 inches. All are cut from V82 material.
By marking trash cans and garbage containers with reflective tape you can minimize impacts at night and preserve both the can (container) and the vehicle. In other words, a garbage can or trash bin that can be easily seen may never have to be tested by an impact with a vehicle, bike or pedestrian. (Note - if a bicyclist hits an unmarked object in the road, placed there by a homeowner, and is injured, the liability may fall on the homeowner, even thought the can is in the street.)
Many people like to use a bright reflective tape from 1" to 4" wide in a contrasting color to attract attention night and day while others go for the brightest white tape (SOLAS 1404) since it can be seen from the farthest distance. We carry several types of reflective tape that vary in price, color availability and reflective intensity. In this article I am going to cover three types or tape that will work for this application starting with the least expensive and bright and working towards the brightest. The three tapes are flexible engineer grade in colors, V82 Type 5 prismatic tape in colors, and SOLAS 1404 Stretchable reflective tape in white (silver) only.
Our Engineer grade or Type I reflective tape is very popular for marking garbage cans and trash containers. It is the least expensive of the reflective tapes we carry. It is very flexible and moldable and will conform to curved surfaces. This pliability makes flexible engineer grade tape great for almost all applications and surfaces. It has no pattern on top and is simply a solid color to the naked eye. When light strikes this tape it lights up. Engineer grade tapes reflect at a rate of about 75 candlepower for white and less for other colors. This level of brightness is good for close up applications where viewers are within 300 feet of an object when they need to see it. Flexible engineer grade comes in 8 colors. White is the brightest. Yellow and orange would be most vivid in the daytime and still bright at night. In areas where vehicles are traveling very fast thought, type 1 engineer may not be bright enough.
Our ultra bright Oralite V82 Type 5 prismatic reflective tape is characterized by a mild diamond pattern and is incredibly bright. This tape can be seen for thousands versus hundreds of feet away. Oralite V82 Type 5 tapes reflect at about 700-800 candlelas for the white and less for other colors. This tape has an incredibly strong adhesive, however, the main advantage of the V82 material is that it can be seen from farther away. Also, V82 comes in a variety of colors.
Lastly, our Oralite 1404 SOLAS Reflectve Tape is by far the brightest of our tapes and reflects around 1000+ candelas. It is also known as a coast guard approved reflective tape because its primary use is for offshore applications where only the brightest and toughest tape is used. It can be seen from very far away and is great in higher speed traffic areas where early recognition of objects is vital. SOLAS come in white (silver grey) only.
We also have Reflex Reflectors (also known as SAE Reflectors) available in Red and Amber Yellow. These are precut shapes made from the same film that V82 or SOLAS is made from. (AP1000) Application is a quick peel and stick process.
All of our tapes use a high strength adhesive and application is simply a matter of peeling the backing off and applying. The links to the left will take you to our stores and will give you more information on each grade of tape.
About our Company - We are Reflective Incorporated, the largest retailer of reflective tapes in the United States, in business since 1998. Our goal is to provide easy access to reflective safety products that are often difficult to source. We specialize in visibility enhancement through the use of bright and vivid retro reflective tapes and other reflective products. Our product lines include rolls of reflective tape, reflective chevron panels, block panels, Battenburg panels, reflective road markers, reflex reflectors, NFPA helmet decals, preformed thermoplastic, reflective shapes, and more.
About our Products - We carry a wide variety of reflective tapes. They are all branded and certified products. We stock almost everything that we sell in house and ship quickly. If a product is not in stock or is to be drop shipped, we will make you aware and specify a lead time. We carry Oralite and Nikkalite reflective tapes. Both are on QPL lists across the country and both are manufactured by reputable, global manufacturers. Our reflective tapes are rated for outdoor applications with life expectancies of from 5 - 12 years depending on the film. For applications where the tape is out of the weather like a fire truck in a firehouse, the life expectancy is longer.
Shipping - We ship quickly using US Mail for light boxes and UPS Ground for heavier ones. The majority of our products are in stock and ship out the same or next day. Delivery time is approximately 3-5 days on most standard orders.
Return and Order Cancellation Policy - Reflective tape orders can be cancelled until they are shipped out. After products are shipped, we accept returns in certain cases. If we have made a mistake and have shipped the wrong item, we remedy that at no cost to the customer. For returns where another item is purchased to replace an item purchased in error, we accept those with no restock fee. For all other returned items we apply a 10% restock fee.
Privacy Policy - all customer information is kept in strict confidence. We do not release any information on any of our customers to anyone without that customer’s consent. For our full privacy policy, Click Here.
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